Daniel Defoe was a prolific writer, producing more than 300 works on a range of subjects. He is famed for his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) but, often at odds with authority, he also spent time in prison and the stocks! His life involved spells as a merchant, landowner, traveller, bankrupt and secret agent.  His finest…

Stephen Dewar was born at Andover, the third child of Albemarle O’Beirne Willoughby Dewar and Florence Wilhelmina Rose, née Matthews.  Dewar was the great grandson of David Dewar, who is listed as an awardee in the 1830s, for compensation for manumitted property for the Dewar’s estate* on St Kitts, in the West Indies.

A good example of an amateur local historian who gained the respect of professional historians, John Drew achieved what he did as a result of poor health and private means. Not benefiting from an education at major schools or university, at the age of 17 he joined the family London-based firm Drew and Sons, which…

The author of what has been described as the most important travel journal of the 17th century, Celia Fiennes, was born at Newton Toney in Wiltshire, to Nathaniel Fiennes, a Parliamentarian colonel in the English Civil War, and his second wife, Frances.

Finch is an example of a clergyman writing local history at a time when there was much encouragement do so, especially by other churchmen. A review of his Story of the Parish Church at Clere published in the Hants & Berks Gazette on 31 March 1906 praised him for having a ‘capable and careful pen’…

James Fowler KCMG, KCVO, FRCP, MA was born at Woburn, Bedfordshire, the fifth son of James Fowler and his wife Frances.  From 1870 onwards he attended King’s College, London.  He was initially intent on training for the Church but changed course in order to pursue a medical career. He qualified as a Member of the…

Charles Fox came from a well-established Southampton family and his father, Frederick, inherited enough money to build a country house (The Lawn) at Bursledon.  Charles pursued a career in banking and eventually became manager of the Capital and Counties Bank in Winchester.

He was a son of Richard Lee Furley, a shipowner of Hull and Gainsborough and was educated at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with a First in Mods and Greats. He used to say: ‘I owe everything to be elected a scholar of Winchester at the age of 12.’  In his…

Peter Gallup was born in Hampshire and spent his early years at East Meon before moving to Devon.  He attended Lancing College before studying agriculture and forestry at Oxford.  Gallup became a partner in a fruit importing business which ceased trading with the onset of World War II and he signed up, joining the Royal…

Sir Thomas Gatehouse was the son of the minor gentlemen, Thomas Gatehouse and inherited his Danebury estate, in particular lease of Nether Wallop rectory. In 1761 his wife accrued the Headley Park estate of her father, the minor literary figure. William Huggins The younger Gatehouse saw himself among the county elite as he was sheriff…